Comments on: Chicago’s Arne Duncan: Education’s one-man team of rivals?

By: Particia Breidel

Particia Breidel — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:53:14 +0000

Useful post, this is. It is actually good to see a article that is valuable.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:49:05 +0000

Update on December 17, 2008: Obama was elected and has now appointed his basketball buddy, Arne Duncan, to be the US Secretary of Education.

It’s interesting to me that they signed both petitions of the Education Equality Project and the Broader Bolder Approach. (See http://gothamschools.org/tag/education-equality-project/).

If you asked me what my most favorite kind of ice cream is, I would tell you its mint chocolate chip. If you asked me again, I would tell you pralines ‘n cream.

Wouldn’t my responses led you to wonder what I really believed?

Google “The Perimeter Primate”

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:53:39 +0000

I live in Chicago and have experience with CPS. This would be a joke if he is the education secretary. His personal secretary prints out his emails, he writes comments, and she responds. He has no idea how to use technology.

By: Smith

Smith — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:06:57 +0000

I don’t know anything about this guy, but I suspect there’s no knight in shining armor waiting to ride in and save our educational system. As a nation we seem to be obsessed with the idea of “turnaround artists” as the solution to all our problems. It’s this kind of thinking that makes a media star out of someone like Michelle Rhee, who has accomplished nothing (well, one year of allegedly stellar teaching) but knows how to talk the talk. Is there a city, a chancellor out there who has figured out how to successfully educate poor kids on a mass level?

By: Leonie Haimson

Leonie Haimson — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:48:34 +0000

You should have come to our Forum on mayoral control in Chicago, DC and elsewhere. Julie Woestehoff, the executive director of PURE, Parents united for Responsible Education, and a dynamite speaker, had some prime comments about the lack of progress in Chicago under Duncan — and the way in which he, like Klein, has been systematically trying to strip away the right of parents to have some say as to how their schools are run. PURE have a lawsuit again the way in which LSC (local school councils) have been barred by the administration from being established at the new schools — contrary to state law; similar to the way Klein has stripped the power away from School leadership teams. On the other hand, she did say to me privately that Duncan is a nice guy. I don’t know anyone, except perhaps his wife, who thinks the same of Klein.

You can watch Julie in action on our blog at http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2008/11/mayoral-control-in-chicago-dc-and.html

By: norm

norm — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:37:09 +0000

Sorry – here’s a link.
http://www.substancenews.net/backissues.php

By: norm

norm — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:36:36 +0000

Read some back issues of George Schmidt’s Substance to get a better picture of just how Duncan has functionned after he replaced Paul Vallas. These 2 ran Chicago schools for the 13 years of mayoral control and market based reform. How has that worked out? And given the attempt to make this the model nationwide, why hasn’t there been extensive studies done on the results? Remember that boycott by parents early this school year as one example.